What a bunch of dribble

movies - review

Martin Lawrence holds court as a basketball coach.

July 1, 2005|By Roger Moore, Sentinel Movie Critic

Rebound is almost the same movie as Coach Carter, played for Bad News Bears/ Mighty Ducks/Big Green/Kicking and Screaming laughs. It's so close it could be a parody, pointing out how worn the formula was before Carter ever hit theaters.

Martin Lawrence is Coach Roy, a college head coach who is an overdressed hothead coasting on his three "NCBA" titles, his endorsement deals and his free Escalade.

The team isn't winning. Coach Roy is a joke on that joke of a Fox Sports chat show, The Best Damn Sports Show Period. Then he flings a ball at the mascot of a rival team, and his career is gone.

Except for this little escape clause in the rules. If he can prove himself, on probation, coaching wherever somebody will have him, then he will be reinstated.

Bridges burned, attitude sorely in need of adjusting, he's a Bobby Knight that nobody is stupid enough to hire. But the 13-year-olds at his old Mount Vernon Middle School haven't scored all season, haven't won in years. They want him.

There's Goggles and Fuzzy and Big Mac (a girl) and "One Love" (Eddy Martin), a self-absorbed little brick-layer who narrates his own rise to stardom.

"One Love drives the lane, One Love pivots in the paint, he's open, he shoots!"

And doesn't score.

For Coach Roy, the new gig becomes a publicity stunt turned spiritual rebirth, with the usual motley crew of hot dogs, nerds, uncoordinated stiffs, hefty boys and tough, tough girls, motivated to shoot and score for a guy who hasn't thought about anybody but himself for years.

Lawrence has been phoning it in as long as there have been cell phones. See this one and you'll catch previews to his next yawner, a cross-dressing fat-suit follow-up to Big Momma's House. But here he's relaxed, comfortable and almost winning. He's perfectly believable as a jerk who tells middle schoolers, "Listen, I don't mind your embarrassing yourselves, 'cause you're used to it. But now you're embarrassing me!"

He engages with the kids, learns strange lessons about motivating 13-year-old boys (bring 13-year-old girls to watch practice), mugs for the camera and improvises. He spots a tall, gawky boy who could make his life easier.

"Yo, Yao Ming. Wait up!"

Patrick Warburton leads a trio of Seinfeld alumni in the supporting cast and does his screaming meltdown thing to perfection as a too-intense opposing coach.

And the kids are just charming enough to make the time pass.

The team in this Carter clone is the Smelters, not the Oilers. The school is disadvantaged but not impoverished. And Lawrence is no Samuel L. Jackson.

But Lawrence has found a healthy outlet for his once-edgy anger -- family comedies. He's the one who needs to Rebound. Maybe it's not all over for him after all.